Video: Tory Lanez, "Sh!t (Freestyle)"

The problem with rappers trying to freestyle over Future songs is that no one can out-Future Future. Texas-via-Toronto rapper/singer Tory Lanez, whose August Conflicts of My Soul tape was some of the best sensitive-thug R&B in a year full of it, avoids this trap by not trying to ape Future whatsoever in his version of "Sh!t," the latest in his #SwaveSession series. Instead of co-opting the original's brash staccato, he keeps it slick and melodic, occasionally lapsing into an aggro double-time flow, and slips in a quick Young Thug reference (Young thug, and my chain is a stoner). Up next is Chixtape 2, his R&B project set to drop in 2014, and collaborations with WeDidIt producer RL Grime; in the meantime, watch his San Antonio "PSA (Public Swave Announcement)" video (in which he hat-tips Young Thug once again).